Articles Posted in K12 Publishing

Breaking down artificial boundaries in the world of Education emerged as a theme today at EdNet in Chicago. This applies to the curriculum, but it also applies to how schools are managed – it may be a new overarching meme for education.

Chuck House from Media X at Standford kicked things off with a keynote that touched on a lot of interesting ideas. One of them was that the big challenges our society faces (e.g. global warming, terrorism) cross many disciplines. Addressing them demands the ability to weave disparate ideas together. We need to proactively teach that skill. In addition, how we access knowledge via the web is going to force schools to start breaking down the artificial barriers we have set up between subject areas.

This thread was picked up early in the afternoon by panelist Jackson Grayson from the American Productivity and Quality Center (APQC). One of his central points was that most schools don’t do process management very well – they manage inputs and outcomes well but they don’t focus on what happens in the middle, which all about process. Moreover – when they do focus on process they do it in silos – they look at finance or curriculum but don’t look at where those things intersect. Echoing Chuck’s presentation Jackson noted that the big issues schools face require a systemic approach that crosses boundaries.

Textbook publishers have a checkered history with developing technology products – which I’ve already commented on here and here.

Yesterday Richard Carey sent me a link to Rockets, Cars, and Gardens, which does a very elegant job of explaining different software development paradigms.

One of the concepts that jumped out at me is the idea of developing products in a portfolio model. To quote:

An idea for reforming the textbook market in higher education was floated on the editorial page of the New York Times this past Sunday. Fellow Austinite Michael Granof proposed converting the textbook market to a site license approach used in the software world. His ideas, while thought provoking, fail the reality test.

With a 16 year old son headed off to university in a couple of years I’m sensitive to the rapidly rising costs of higher education and the portion that textbooks represent. But I also think it is disingenuous to point at books as a major cause of this inflation. Students spend about 5% of their budgets on books, and the total is declining 1.8% this year. Compare this with the market for electronics where students spend twice as much and it is increasing at 25% per year. Was this topic worthy of a NYT Op-Ed?

But putting relevance aside lets look at his arguments. First – the numbers seem high. The article cites costs ranging from $120-$180 for a complete textbook. The Association of College Bookstores puts the average cost of a new textbook at $52. Even assuming his numbers are correct Granof overstates the problem by implying that this is a cost born by every student every semester. Oddly, his own statements contradict this central argument.

Statewide Web 2.0 applications for education are a growing force in the market. This has huge implications for how schools will organize and manage information.

Education Enterprise Software has always played a critical role in the adoption of new technologies. For example, when web applications first debuted in schools many of the earliest and longest lasting applications connected parents to student information systems. Yet, with all the noise lately about School 2.0 the focus has been on social networks and classroom applications.

Here is an interesting case study from Holland where they are deploying a Web 2.0 attendance application across multiple districts to help reduce truancy rates. Eventually over 200,000 students will be tracked. All the professionals involved (teachers, counselors, administrators) have custom work-flows that help them make sure the right kids are in the right schools.